I did a little mini-stroll through FB this morning and I saw a post by Patrick Jones discussing Zara, the trendy Spanish company that created the fascist-themed jacket Melania Trump wore when visiting a detention center in Texas yesterday. So, I did some source checking. What I found was stunning. I want to share this with you:
Zara has been in "trouble" many times for their racist and anti-Semitic clothing lines. There is the lovely Holocaust themed children's shirt. The purse with swastika embroidery. The 2014 t-shirt saying, "White is the new black." Or the 2017 denim skirt featuring Pepe, the cartoon mascot popular with the "alt-right."
Ian Jack Miller, the first and only corporate attorney for Zara's U.S. and Canada business, filed a $40 million discrimination suit in New York's Supreme Court alleging he was fired because he's Jewish, American and gay. Miller says he was the only Jewish employee and had to keep his Jewishness a secret due to the anti-Semitism in the corporation. For example, the CEO of Zara's American business, repeatedly described the retail chain's Jewish landlords and Jewish real estate developers as "los judios" or "the Jews."
Also in the suit, Zara’s top executives allegedly exchanged racist emails, including emails portraying Michelle Obama serving fried chicken and emails depicting Barack Obama in a Ku Klux Klan hood, with a Confederate flag, on a Cream of Wheat box, on an Aunt Jemima box, and shining shoes.
A report by the Center for Popular Democracy (2016) found that the Zara store in New York faced racists conditions. For example, the code word “special order” was used to identify suspicious customers, and black customers were seven times more likely to be tagged as potential shoplifters than other customers. Of course, this racism didn't confine itself to customers. The survey found that employees of color perceived widespread discrimination at the company.
If all of this wasn't enough....in 2017 unpaid workers in Turkey stitched pleas for help into clothing sold by retailer Zara, describing their lack of pay. The work conditions were horrific. For context, Inditex (Zara's parent company) is the largest fashion retailer in the world by sales, with 7,292 stores around the globe.
This company is racist, anti-Semitic, fascist capitalist vulture. While there is no ethical consumption under capitalism, I'd like to spread awareness of this company and it's horrific history.
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